Saturday, May 2, 2009

The First Saturday Devotion


As I Googled "First Saturday Devotion" this morning I came across this informative, brief and link-filled article on Wikipedia. I include the article of the Devotion with the index of links.

First Saturday Devotions

The First Saturdays Devotion is a Roman Catholic practice which, according to the visionaries, has been recommended by the Virgin Mary in several visitations, notably Our Lady of Fátima. Catholics honour the Virgin on Saturdays because they believe that as the Mother of Jesus Christ she must have suffered a great deal and had much faith on Holy Saturday, before the Resurrection on Easter. Devotees of Fátima believe that the First Saturdays help to console the sorrows of God, Jesus, and the Virgin Mary for the sins against her Immaculate Heart.

Statue depicting Our Lady of Fátima.

Any Catholic can practice the First Saturdays, alone or in a group. On the first Saturday of five successive months, one goes to confession, attends Saturday Mass and receives Holy Communion. Then the Rosary is recited. Then for at least fifteen minutes afterwards one should meditate on the Rosary's mysteries. During Communion one is considered to be visiting Jesus Christ, who, according to the doctrine of Transubstantiation, is physically present in the Eucharist.

The activities of the Five First Saturdays devotion are different from the same devotions on other days in that all should be done with the intention in the heart of making reparation to the Blessed Mother for blasphemies against her, her name and her holy initiatives.
Sister Lúcia, the only Fátima visionary to survive into adulthood reported that the Blessed Mother came to her in her convent at Pontevedra, Spain with the following statement:

Look, my daughter, at my Heart encircled by these thorns with which men pierce it at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You, at least, strive to console me, and so I announce: I promise to assist at the hour of death with the grace necessary for salvation all those who, with the intention of making reparation to me, will, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, go to confession, receive Holy Communion, say five decades of the beads, and keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary.

The First Saturdays devotion had already been an established custom in the Catholic Church. On July 1, 1905, Pope Pius X approved and granted indulgences for the practice of the First Saturdays of twelve consecutive months in honor of the Immaculate Conception. This practice greatly resembled the reported request of Mary at the Pontevedra apparitions.
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